The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford — Volume 1 eBook

but had hoped, by intimidating, to extort money from
him. Yet if no real attempt was made on his life,
it was not from want of suggestions to it: one
of the weekly journals pointed out Sir Robert’s
frequent passing a Putney bridge late at night, attended
but by one or two servants, on his way to New Park,
as a proper place; and after Sir Robert’s death,
the second Earl of Egmont told me, that he was once
at a consultation of the Opposition, in which it was
proposed to have Sir Robert murdered by a mob, of
which the earl had declared his abhorrence. Such
an attempt was actually made in 1733, at the time
of the famous excise bill. As the minister descended
the stairs of the House of commons on the night he
carried the bill, he was guarded on one side by his
second son Edward, and on the other by General Charles
Churchill; but the crowd behind endeavoured to throw
him down, as he was a bulky man, and trample him to
death; and that not succeeding, they tried to strangle
him by pulling his red cloak tight-but fortunately
the strings broke by the violence of the tug.

(98) Wriothesly, Duke of Bedford, had married Lady
Anne Egerton, only daughter of Scroop, Duke of Bridgewater,
by Lady Elizabeth Churchill, daughter of John, Duke
of Marlborough. See vol. I. 8.

CHAPTER V.

Accession of George the Second-Sir Spencer Compton-Expected
Change in Administration-Continuation of Lord Townshend-and
Sir Robert Walpole by the Intervention of Queen Caroline-Mrs.
Howard, afterwards Countess of Suffolk-Her character
by Swift-and by Lord Chesterfield.

The unexpected death of George I. on his road to Hanover
was instantly notified by Lord Townshend, secretary
of state, who attended his Majesty, to his brother
Sir Robert Walpole, who as expeditiously was the first
to carry the news to the successor and hail him King.
The next step was, to ask who his Majesty would please
should draw his speech to the Council. “Sir
Spencer Compton,” replied the new monarch.
The answer was decisive, and implied Sir Robert’s
dismission. Sir Spencer Compton was Speaker
of the House of Commons, and treasurer, I think, at
that time, to his Royal Highness, who by that first
command, implied his intention of making Sir Spencer
his prime-minister. He was a worthy man, of
exceedingly grave formality, but of no parts, as his
conduct immediately proved. The poor gentleman
was so little qualified to accommodate himself to
the grandeur of the moment, and to conceive how a
new sovereign should address himself to his ministers,
and he had also been so far from meditating to supplant
the premier,(99) that, in his distress, it was to
Sir Robert himself that he had recourse, and whom he
besought to make the draught of the Kin(,’s speech
for him. The new Queen, a better judge than
her husband of the capacities of the two candidates,
and who had silently watched for a moment proper for
overturning the new designations, did not lose a moment